Post University - Exit Strategy

My exit strategy for after University is pretty straight forward. I want to mov down to London. As a storyboard artist, I want to make sure that I am around the place where all of the work is.

As is shown here, from a simple google search . the top most options for Storyboard artist are based in the London area. Also of the people I have contacted; Bianca Ansems, Jez Hall and Douglas Ingram, have all been London based and are some of the biggest storyboard artists in the UK right now.

I feel as though this is a logical step in my career, and as my family own a flat in Kent, I will try to move into it temporarily, with a friend of mine, and commute into London from there.

Overall from the flat, to the station and then into London, will take about 2 hours, which will be a pretty horrific commute, however for a temporary/cheap compromise with moving down South, it will meet our needs well enough. It will be a needs must sort of situation where we will have to make sacrifices for cheaper living costs, as straight out of Uni it will probably not be realistic to move straight into London, as living costs are much higher than the North.

Business Cards - Redone

After my big re-brand, I needed to make a new type of business card. I wanted to include my website this time as I had not before.

This is the front of my business card, it is literally just my logo and the related text.

This is the back side of my new designed cards, it is much more in line with my standard branding now. I have also included an example of my work, and looking at Moo.com, I will be able to make variations of this to create a different style of board on each card. I am looking to get my new cards printed on Moo with the 25% off voucher I can get.

Bluezoo Clean - Up Board Artist Application

Today a clean-up storyboard artist position at Bluezoo opened up, and although I have applied for the internship, I wanted to give it a shot, as Jez and David Bunting have given me the advice to go for clean-up and revisionist as an opening position first, so that I can get a feel for the role first, before stepping into the actual storyboard position.

This was my cover notes for this position, I will see if anything comes of it, although I have not heard anything from Bluezoo in the past regarding anything to do with my applications, so I will be cautiously optimistic, as I have applied with my latest CV and also my new website as my portfolio, both of which I am quite happy with.

Website Rebuilding + Market Research

After my talk with David Bunting, I decided that my website needed revisiting, to try and make it a little more concise, and in line with what I wanted to show off. SO I took a look at some other storyboard artist's website, to see how they were showing work, and how I could improve mine to seem a bit more professional.

First I had a look at http://www.buntinganimation.com/ . David's own website, to see how he was showing his Storyboards. I found that he puts a lot into what he is . trying to achieve with his boards, and explaining his creative decisions, which I found fascinating, as it is both personal and professional.

I then had a look at https://www.biancaansems.com/ . The website for Bianca Ansems. This was cool to see as it is very minimalist, like mine, but a bit more spread out, so you can see the boards straight onto the page, there is not much text, it is very to the point, which I also quite like, as it shows off what she can do straight off the bat.

A bit of a change of pace, but I had a look at http://www.douglasingramart.com/ . Although this is a live action portfolio, I thought it necessary to have a look, because I know Douglas outsourced the design of his website, so I thought it interesting to see. Douglas has again, quite a different approach, splitting his by project, but with not much text, which is sort of in-between the 2 others I looked at.

This is how I chose to lay out my storyboard section. I took out the animation portion of my portfolio just for now, and decided to focus on making the storyboard section really strong first. I decided to split it into 2 different sections, personal, and University work, and I can add a third "Professional" section after I have some work under my belt. Now there is a small descriptor of what is happening in each board, and it is formatted much nicer, so you can see everything on one page, as opposed to having to scroll through masses of posts. I also decreased the roundness of my top bar, as with the new logo, being more angular, the rounded edge didn't quite fit. The drop down menu is also an improvement, as it no longer needs to go onto a specific page before you can access the portfolio section.

I also adjusted the home page slightly, so that it plays my showreel from the off, as a sort of taster of what you can see in the rest of my web page. I decided to take the music off my showreel for this version as music playing as soon as you click on a webpage can often be off putting, and people are more likely to click straight off.

Bluezoo Internship Application

The 2019 Bluezoo internships opened very recently, including one in 2D storyboarding. I decided to apply for this, as last year I had applied but nothing came of it. Last year I felt unprepared and I felt as though I hadn't got enough to offer anyone, whereas this year I already had a creative CV ready to go and apply for jobs with, as well as a portfolio website which I can link to without problem.

This was my cover notes section to Bluezoo, I tried to be professional and personal, and relay that I want to do storyboarding as a career. I feel as though my chances are pretty good for this position, and I can definitely get a lot out of the opportunity. I imagine I was also one of the first to apply, as I applied 20 minutes after they were put online.

Phone Call - Square One Resources

During PP, I had applied for a lot of different storyboard artists roles, hoping that something would come of it and I would potentially gain feedback on my work. This was slightly upheld by the phone call I received from Square One Resources, who were aware that I was a student, however wanted to have a talk with me about my plans for after University,

We had a brief talk about my areas of interests and where I would like to end up, and said that obviously he could not offer me any sort of positions right now, but potentially after University, provided I would be willing to move down to London.

A Talk with David Bunting

Today we had a storyboard pro workshop with David Bunting.

http://www.buntinganimation.com/

As he is a storyboard artist by trade for children's TV, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some feedback on my work face to face, and not over email or LinkedIn as I have done with my other connections.

Here were my main takeaways from our conversation:

• Most recent work is good, at a very similar level to Bianca Ansems and Catherine Salkeld  when they were in my position. 
• My website is a bit too clumsy, a bit too open, it would work to be a bit more condensed. 
• It would serve me well to attend life drawing sessions "for a storyboard artist it should be like going to the gym" is something which he said to me. 

The comparison to 2 of my storyboarding heroes was something I will takeaway with me as it is a real confidence booster in my own abilities. He gave me a lot of constructive criticism, which I will take with me also, as it is very important to my development as an artist, also as a board artist, I will need to be able to take director feedback and respond in turn, as storyboarding is such a necessary part of the animation pipeline. 

He also recommended to me that I look into Lupus and Aardman, as both companies have been known to take on interns and he also learned storyboard pro through his work at Aardman, so I will contact both companies to see what opportunities they could hold.